ASUS Preparing High-End Non-Reference HD 4890 Accelerator

[btarunr]

As we inch closer to the early-April launch of AMD's newest graphics card, the Radeon HD 4890, pictures of the said card by various AMD partners are piling up. Among all the usual reference-design cards we have seen so far, that virtually every partner is working on, we have learned that ASUS is working on something bigger. The company already has a reference-design card in the works, and another one that is set to eye the top-spot in the range of HD 4890 cards that will hit the market.

The company is designing a non-reference design accelerator that concentrates on a superior power design, and higher clock-speeds. We do not know what the company plans to call it, whether it joins the elite MATRIX series, or a "TOP" model under its general lineup, but the odds are tilting in favour of it featuring in the MATRIX lineup, the reasons you will soon know. Pictured below is its PCB, a list of some of the most notable features follows:

• 100% digital PWM design - something the reference PCB features too, but enhanced by a small design change by ASUS
• The 6+2 phase power circuit is controlled by two independent VRM controller chips, the vGPU can be controlled by software, and can be set up to 1.4 V with the included software
• An 8-pin PCI-E power input replaces one of two 6-pin inputs on the reference model. This is said to add electrical stability and increase overclocking headroom
• ASUS added the industry's highest-quality voltage regulation thanks to the Fujitsu high-density ML capacitor, that facilitates the lowest ESR, and is best suited for digital PWM circuits (the cleanest power makes it to the GPU)
• The GPU is expected to be clocked above 900 MHz, with the GDDR5 memory at 1000 MHz (4.00 GHz effective)
• It will feature a non-reference high-performance cooler, which doesn't want to be pictured yet

With this on offer, the card could be one of the more expensive ones in its series. The reference-design card is expected to be priced at US $249.99, for the know.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[zithe]

And probably little to no possibility of this being air-cooled, I bet. It'd be nice, though.

 

[btarunr]

And probably little to no possibility of this being air-cooled, I bet. It'd be nice, though.

do you see the wire peeking out from the second pic?

 

[zithe]

do you see the wire peeking out from the second pic?

Shows you how much I pay attention.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

So, reference cards are not using 6+8 pin designs so far . This maybe the OC edition (or some variant) I read about a while back. In any case I won't be surprised with this card's performance.

 

[kenkickr]

I'm thinking this is going to be the card that retires my 3870x2. I like the black PCB.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Fap, Fap, Fap, Fap.

 

[ShadowFold]

Fap, Fap, Fap, Fap.

Indeed.

 

[mdm-adph]

That's a pretty clean pcb, too, gotta admit.

 

[AltecV1]

That is gonna be a awsome card for sure!

 

[Arrakis9]

notice it has a refrence cooler outline on the "custom" pcb

 

[h3llb3nd4]

i'll stick with the dark side for now...

 

[AltecV1]

will it do over 1ghz???????????????only time will tell

 

[ZoneDymo]

6pin + 8pin = Fail.

 

[h3llb3nd4]

6pin + 8pin = Fail.

Why? don't you have both?

 

[indybird]

If this is a Matrix series card with 1GB of memory and it has one of those awesome coolers and the voltage adjustment, then I will definitely put of getting an HD 4870 512MB Matrix for this...

If they do add voltage adjustment I bet this card can get to 1GHz. The Matrix 4870 could get up to 890MHz which is an 18% overclock. An 18% overclock on 850Mhz is 1008Mhz.

-Indybird

 

[Steevo]

Who wants to buy my 4850?

 

[AltecV1]

Who wants to buy my 4850?

 

[indybird]

Nordic Hardware has a little more info on the card.

-Indybird

 

[Hayder_Master]

notice it has a refrence cooler outline on the "custom" pcb

i don't think it is come with reference cooler , asus always care much about cooler , and this is an overclock version so i guess they surprise as with great cooler

 

[eidairaman1]

Who wants to buy my 4850?

you might aswell keep it and drop in a second 4850.

 

[indybird]

Actually I just sold my HIS HD4850 512MB IceQ4 Turbo on craigslist for $130. Get your stuff on craigslist/ebay now, and put at a price to sell ($115-$130) because in month or two they won't even be worth $100.

-Indybird

 

[ZoneDymo]

Why? don't you have both?

1. nope I dont
2. the 4870 uses 2 x 6-pin and even the much stronger GTX285 uses 2 x 6-pin

 

[Initialised]

Accoring to GPU-Z 3.3 the R790 has a die area of 282mm^2, and increase of 26mm^2 over the R770's 256mm^2

Is it possible to get an accurate comparison using the (only known R790 die shot) from ASUS:

and this shot of a 4850:

 

[Initialised]

you might aswell keep it and drop in a second 4850.

A mate's been hankering after a second 4850 for a while...